Nerf: The gateway gun?

posted at 8:40 am on March 15, 2012 by Ed Morrissey

Cam Edwards told me about this story when I made a guest appearance on his NRA News show, and I’m still laughing about it. Remember Michael Pfleger, the radical priest in Chicago last heard from in the 2008 campaign, defending his friend Rev. Jeremiah Wright? The one who hung out with Barack Obama for decades, thinks that “America is the greatest sin against God,” and who wound up getting suspended by the Chicago diocese after making himself into a national spectacle? Well, Father Pfleger is back, baby, and he has a new eeeeeevil in his sights — guns. Or perhaps more accurately … gateway guns?

There was a time when kids wanting toy guns had limited media images of cowboys and Indians or cops and robbers to emulate. Today, not so.

So the Rev. Michael Pfleger said he is challenging the sale of the toys — in Easter baskets — to a generation plagued by more violent and rampant use of guns in their own neighborhoods.

“I am writing to express my concern and outrage that Kmart is selling Easter baskets, which are obviously for children, with toy guns in them,” Pfleger, pastor of St. Sabina Catholic Church in Auburn-Gresham, wrote to officials at the big box retailer, in a Mar. 9 letter obtained by the Sun-Times.

“With the increasing gun violence in Chicago and across this country, I am amazed that you would choose to offer toy guns to our children to make them comfortable with playing with them. I am asking you to remove any baskets with toy guns in them from your store’s shelves immediately,” Pfleger wrote.

These must be realistic replicas, right? Those can lead to dangerous situations, as a few deadly incidents can attest. None of those incidents, however, involved the garishly-colored Nerf gun variety:

The toys in question are plastic water guns or Nerf dart shooters in sizes ranging from pistol- to nearly rifle-length, contained in Easter baskets sold by the retailer for prices starting at $9.99.

Seriously? The candy in the Easter baskets are more dangerous than the Nerf guns and water pistols. Pfleger explains that as a Christian, he’s offended by the inclusion of violent toys in this “celebration of life,” but as a Catholic priest, shouldn’t he be more offended by Easter eggs, Easter bunnies, and the commercialization of the holiest day on the Christian calendar? Isn’t that his day job?

Pfleger then argues that Nerf is nothing more than a gateway to the harder stuff:

But equally important is that any psychiatrist will tell you a child who gets comfortable playing with toy guns and pointing them at people as a child becomes comfortable picking them up as an adult. In a nation that’s plagued with gun violence, neither Kmart nor any other store should be selling guns in Easter baskets to our kids.

This sounds a lot like the arguments people make when they demand that the government ban certain games on gaming systems, taken to a reductio ad absurdum level. Pfleger isn’t demanding government intervention — yet — but the argument is just as ridiculous. Even if there were something inherently wrong with being comfortable handling a pistol or a rifle, and there isn’t, shooting Nerf darts as a kid on Easter is not going to turn adults later into Mad Dog Colls.

Update: I managed to misspell a word I just coined! The subhead included the word “Nerfsanel,” which an astute commenter points out should be “Nerfsenal.” If Nerf ever makes a perfumed foam dart with Chanel No. 5, then perhaps “Nerfsanel” would be correct.

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My grandsons have an aresenal of nerf guns. I wasn’t planning to get them more, but if this issue has Pfleger’s knickers in a wad, I might.
Good Lord, can we not be more obtuse? Nerf guns and boys playing with them is not the problem. Parental involvement, or lack thereof, is.
Boys need to be boys our country depends on it.

i agree with you, but my point stands. young boys/men must not show that they have an ounce of testosterone in their bodies. it scares people. what are they supossed to play with on easter? crayons, dolls, and kites??? no, easter is springtime. get out there and run around the yard and do what boys do: shoot things with pretend guns.

Following are 10 excuses Obama has given through the years for voting “present” and “no” on the Illinois Born Alive Infant Protection Act, or BAIPA.

10. Babies who survive abortions are not protected by the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution.

Obama, the sole opponent ever to speak against BAIPA, stated on the Illinois Senate floor on March 30, 2001:

I just want to suggest … that this is probably not going to survive constitutional scrutiny.

Number one, whenever we define a previable fetus as a person that is protected by the equal protection clause or the other elements in the Constitution, what we’re really saying is, in fact, that they are persons that are entitled to the kinds of protections that would be provided to a – child, a 9-month-old – child that was delivered to term. …

I mean, it – it would essentially bar abortions, because the equal protection clause does not allow somebody to kill a child, and if this is a child, then this would be an anti-abortion statute. For that purpose, I think it would probably be found unconstitutional.

9. A ban to stop aborted babies from being shelved to die would be burdensome to mothers.

Before voting “no” for a second time in the Senate Judiciary Committee on March 5, 2002, Obama stated:

What we are doing here is to create one more burden on women, and I can’t support that.

8. Aborting babies alive and letting them die is a doctor’s prerogative.

An Obama spokesman told the Chicago Tribune in August 2004 that Obama voted against BAIPA because it included provisions that “would have taken away from doctors their professional judgment when a fetus is viable.”

7. Anyway, doctors don’t do that.

Obama told the Chicago Sun-Times in October 2004 he opposed BAIPA because “physicians are already required to use life-saving measures when fetuses are born alive during abortions.”

6. Obama apparently read medical charts and saw no proof.

Also, during a speech at Benedictine University in October 2004, Obama said “there was no documentation that hospitals were actually doing what was alleged in testimony presented before him in committee,” according to the Illinois Leader.

…..and on and on the article details violence that Progressives condone, encourage and subsidize.

It’s appalling how these Lefties decree that blacks in Chicago are unable to defend themselves and their families from criminals in their community. Further, we’re the only state in the nation that doesn’t have concealed carry. Disgraceful.

No wonder the black population is literally fleeing Chicago. Do-gooder Leftists have done terrible damage to their families, educational opportunities, and job opportunities in their communities.

Underlying this sort of liberal nonsense is the fundamental idea of tabula rasa, that when human beings are born, we are a blank slate, shaped by the environment to do good or evil, which implies that we can be somehow made perfect by the right environment (that’s why liberals want to create heaven on earth to make this possible). And, conversely, if someone does evil, it is not entirely his/her fault, because his/her environment is partly or even completely to blame (“it’s because these kids are poor, they randomly hit people in the streets and rob them” or “see, all those toy guns made these people more violent”).

My two boys have been playing with these Nerf dart guns for a few years now. I joined them once, and I was instantly 30 years younger! No coincidence that after my first time playing with them, their arsenal increased significantly!

They have everything from single shot pistols, blow-guns, and semi-autos with magazines and/or clips. There are different types of ammo, too. Some have suction cup tips (great for safe shooting at the TV), some have rounded tips that whistle in flight (wow!), others have velcro tips.

They and their friends have figured out how to mod them, too. I had to confiscate one of the single shooters because they had wrapped duct tape around a few parts of the gun, closing off a few air holes. This pushed more air into the chamber and SIGNIFICANTLY increased the speed and distance (and pain factor!) of anything shot from the modified shooter. Gotta admit — I was so proud of their cleverness!

My kids and their friends will “trick” me into coming down to the basement by saying there’s a bug that there scared of or they messed up the TV/XBOX inputs. When I get halfway down the steps, I get pelted with a few dozen nerf darts from. I fall for this trick more than I care to admit!

OMG! It’s so true!
One day I was using my fingers to shoot my friends, and then I got my first water gun and I felt so powerful…and then the thrill faded and I got a Nerf Gun and that feeling was back, there I was master of all I surveyed ready to blast away at the dog or annihilate the neighborhood kids…but then again the thrill was gone… so I got my first Red Rider BB gun with a compass in the stock and this thing that tells time… and again I was the master and others cowered before my mightiness or felt the sting of my wrath…
And now I stalk the neighborhood in my white chaps carrying ‘ole Blue, chawing on tobaccy, and waiting for Black Bart to make his move, and I’ll be ready.

Nerf guns are a gateway gun…at least in my family. When my nephew was 4 I bought him a Nerf gun and and extra set of Nerf “bullets” for Christmas. Now that he is older and more responsible I think I will get him a .22 for Easter.

My gateway gun was my grandad’s double barrel shotgun. Thing was huge and actually cracked one of my ribs when I was younger. 8 gauge, I think. Just massive. I didn’t have a nerf gun until I was much older, 10 I think. Nearly shot my eye out, then I over pumped it and it exploded. Crazy, dangerous toys, they ought to be outlawed.

I say skip the pansie nerf crap, every boy by the age of eight should know how to field strip an M-16. It’s the fashion nowadays in those third world countries who enslave kids and have them go around murdering people with those AK-47’s. I mean, shucks, we already have Obama on the flag, why stop there?

I must admit I was one who turned to the gun after a childhood of gateway guns….when we were kids we ran the neighborhood with air rifles and Lugers and the like……as I got older I started buying real guns, you might even consider me a collector. I had to own the same guns that I had as a child. As I aged my collection would grow then taper off. Today I’m to a recovering gunaholic, I have learned, you only need what you can use to protect yourself. I am proud to say there are only 7 guns in my house , just enough for protection ……..
Ppl should listen to the reverend it starts out small then explodes before you know it…./

The election of Barack Obama ended up in more people buying firearms. It also appears those liberal “moralists” who have come out of the wood work since the election of the greatest president ever will result in more Nerf guns in the hands of kids as well.

What ever happened to super soakers? I used to turn them into flamethrowers as a kid, but surely they didn’t stop making them just because they were tailor-made to propel spark-ignited alcohol fifty-plus feet at high volume.

It is addicting. It started with the .177 (4.5 mm) air rifle, the .22, the 5.56 mm(.223), 7.62 mm (.308), 9 mm, .45, .50 BMG, 105 mm, 107 mm(4.2″), 155 mm and the 8″ (203 mm). I have assembled nuclear artillery rounds, but they never let us actually shoot one. There is always the craving, the desire for bigger and badder. It never ends.

Westerns were extremely popular during the 1950’s and 60’s, yet gun crime remained low until the 70’s. This is just another inability of a human brain to understand cause and effect. Unfortunately, most statist have an inherent deficiency in this regard. Mr. Pfleger is either mentally unable to understand inanimate objects do not compel normal people to commit violence, or he needs to become a sci-fi writer from his creative imagination.

My son, God love him, is the bane of my mother-in-laws existence. My Father kept him for about a month every summer watching all his favorite war movies and just the fight scenes in Gladiator ( they would fast forward through all the talking). He’d come home and spend the rest of the summer hiding in trees and pretending to be a sniper. She was sure he was going to end up being a serial killer. :)

What ever happened to super soakers? I used to turn them into flamethrowers as a kid, but surely they didn’t stop making them just because they were tailor-made to propel spark-ignited alcohol fifty-plus feet at high volume.

Buckshot Bill on March 15, 2012 at 9:33 AM

From the internet wayback machine…..

“Earlier this month a Boston woman and her child were shot in the fact with a Super Soaker loaded with bleach, and another child was shot to death when the target of his Super Soaker attack retaliated with a real gun.

Concerned that the toys could lead to further outbreaks of violence, Boston Mayor Raymond Flynn called on stores to voluntarily remove the water pistols from their shelves.

According to opponents of the gun, a regular water gun attack can be shrugged off, but a trigger-happy individual is not likely to be so philosophical about being drenched by a forceful blast from a Super Soaker. The greater volume of the Super Soaker also makes a bleach attack more dangerous.

And Flynn has painted the gun as a sort of “gateway” to urban violence the way marijuana is to hard drug abuse.

But critics of the mayor have argued that to stop people from shooting each other the city should ban handguns not squirt guns.”

They can have my Nerf guns and water pistols when they pry them from my cold – slightly wet, stinging a bit from the darts too – hands. I’d add “dead” but c’mon! Trying to kill someone with Nerf darts is like trying to hang yourself with a wet noodle.

Well I’ll be. Lets just hope those evil gun-toting kids don’t learn to make their own water guns with pvc pipe like I did. If you think a super soaker hits hard… And that’s just water, not the flamethrower.

Man I did a lot of stupid stuff as a kid. And now my mother wants me to build a trebuchet to show off at a local high school.

But equally important is that any psychiatrist will tell you a child who gets comfortable playing with toy guns and pointing them at people as a child becomes comfortable picking them up as an adult. In a nation that’s plagued with gun violence, neither Kmart nor any other store should be selling guns in Easter baskets to our kids.

This is ridiculous. I was a child in the 70’s and 80’s. We had nerf guns and even those cowboy guns. I recently picked up my first real gun. It is different feel. I also felt that distinct discomfort that someone who isn’t experienced with guns feel the first time you hold one.

We were part of the hysteria of no guns raising our 13 year old son. The kid took his lincoln logs and taped them together in the form of a gun. At one time, the “good guys” were the one that carried the guns (military,police). My husband is military, so of course my child tried to be like his Dad.

I was about 10 years old when I hung up my cap shooters and made my first potatoe gun. Used pop cans (made of steel then) and my dad’d black electrical tape. I walked up to the drug store and bought lighter fluid over the counter. (have a 10 year old try that today) and a free pack of matches.

Another kid on the block showed us how to melt styrofome with gas to make a goo that we put on the balls and set on fire. We would shoot them up into the air and watch as they bounced fire down the street.

The Wasteland-Kids own Nerf guns, and have been properly trained.
1. Always treat a gun like its loaded, and point it in a safe direction.
2. Always keep your finger off the trigger until ready to shoot.
3. Always check TWICE to see if it is unloaded.
4. If you find a gun, don’t pick it up go tell an adult.

If you ask them the can recite these AND they follow them.
They also know the difference between a toy and a gun.
They aren’t bad shots either.

First, why would anyone want to buy an Easter basket with a gun toy or any toys inside it? This isn’t Christmas. It is Easter. Let’s make every Holy Day into a required gift-giving holiday…yep, that’s the ticket. Let’s banish any religious overtones to any event or day.

A totally godless society…that’s what will make all the Progressives happy.

Gateway weapons???

Gimme a break. Might as well start banning sticks and stones.

Chicago’s crime problem has nothing at all to do with Nerf guns or gateway weapons in Easter baskets.

It has everything to do with how the Peoples Republic of Chicago has been ruled for the past many decades.

Chicago has been allowed, no, encouraged, to become a cesspool so local politicians can enrich themselves, and gain higher political office along the way.

Maybe if “community organizers” in Chicago’s recent past had addressed real problems and offered real solutions that Chicagoans could bring to fruition themselves, with their own labor and their own dollars, there would probably be a lot better Chicago in front of us than this cesspool monstrosity brought to America by the likes of Reverend Wright, this Pfleger idiot, Rahm Emanuel an the present occupier of the White House.

This is ridiculous. I grew up around and with firearms. all my family did. None of us ever decided to use them unlawfully or for any kind of violence….well pinging rats at the local dump might count.
My grandkids, all under 10 have Nerf guns, the oldest does paintball, and the two older ones shoot pistol and rifle. The oldest has gone hunting, the middle one has a 22 rifle. Only the toddler doesn’t have a real gun. They are brought up to learn safety and have respect for firearms. They are probably the most non-violent kids you’ll ever meet.

Funny! I was just wondering how someone was able to break into my boys‘ bedroom to get this pic!

And a lot of good it will do, Pfleger going after Nerfs. My son’s daycare didn’t have any toy guns with which to play. But, they did have Lego blocks. Those 4 and 5 year olds built some pretty nifty “pistols” with those blocks!

Growing up as a kid in my neighborhood Pfleger would have had to confiscate ever stick/tree limb in sight.

These must be realistic replicas, right? Those can lead to dangerous situations, as a few deadly incidents can attest. – Ed

Here’s what I don’t get: When i was a kid and the rodeo came to town, we had ‘Go Western Day at school, we duded out with our hats, jeans, boots, and strapped on our cap-firin’ six guns. Mine was a 7/8ths size replica of The Lone Ranger’s Peacemaker, chrome plated, white plastic grips. NO RED TIP. None of us got shot in the school. There were only two rules, don’t shoot caps in class, and don’t wear a mask or bandana over your face in class.

I wonder why that was then, and now is now. I wonder what made our police departments so inherently fragile that they can’t discern an actual weapon from a toy, how they went from seeing citizens to be served to seeing every citizen as a criminal. Pfleger is a headline/relevance seeking idiot. But what about the commentary on our society and on law enforcement that his statements represent?

But equally important is that any psychiatrist will tell you a child who gets comfortable playing with toy guns and pointing them at people as a child becomes comfortable picking them up as an adult.

So Pfleger is an “expert” in psychology as well?

Hey Michael! ANY PSYCHIATRIST will tell you that, hearing what comes out of your mouth; one can only conclude that you’ve got some serious psychological issues – most of them GUILT associated. Perhaps you should seek some therapy.

I know your pain DAT.
And yes I know what DAT stands for as at one time I was a “crunchy.”

LincolntheHun on March 15, 2012 at 9:44 AM

Excellent! I have been using that nom de plume for well over a decade and you are the first to pick up on it! I started life with Field Artillery (FIST, FDC) and then became Armor and had an M-60A3 company. I will admit that I have been known to use the terms Crunchy and Earth Pig, but in a good way.

Pfleger is a fool. There are many liberal Catholic priests who seem to think we can create heaven on earth, never mind that Jesus explicitly said that would not happen. The support the Democrats in direct contradiction to the Church’s pro-life stand precisely because they have come to believe that “social justice” needs to be codified and enforced (coerced) by the state. It’s immoral, to them, for the state not to do such a thing. “We” are morally bound to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless and to them “we” means government. If you disagree and believe that Jesus enjoined ME to do these things, not use the power of the state to force others to do them, then I’m somehow the immoral one. Jesus enjoined us as individuals because salvation is personal, not collective. I don’t really know how they could get so twisted in their thinking. It’s pretty plain. BTW, I am Catholic and will always be, these misguided “shepherds” notwithstanding.

As far as “guns” go, when I was a kid we’d build rubberband guns with multiple shot capability. We’d find the biggest, thickest rubberbands so we could get the most power and velocity, then shoot each other. They hurt and we had a blast. Nerf guns were not around back then, but we’d probably have opted for those instead and been much safer.

I recall with great amusement my urban liberal sister’s household and the gathering where the well indoctinated and toy gun deprived little boys were running about the house, holding dolls by the feet and pointing them at each other yelling “bang! bang!”.

As a convert to the Catholic faith, I tend to have high expectations of our clergy, especially the hierarchy. It’s beyond me how and why this man has not been removed from the priesthood. Perhaps my standards are greater than the Vatican’s.

So the Rev. Michael Pfleger said he is challenging the sale of the toys — in Easter baskets — to a generation plagued by more violent and rampant use of guns in their own neighborhoods.

As someone else said, the war on being male is continuing. I’ve had every toy gun possible. Nerf,pop,water, rubberband, BB, Pelet…… I’m just fine. Never been arrested and now I have REAL guns.

But equally important is that any psychiatrist will tell you a child who gets comfortable playing with toy guns and pointing them at people as a child becomes comfortable picking them up as an adult. In a nation that’s plagued with gun violence, neither Kmart nor any other store should be selling guns in Easter baskets to our kids.

Show me some PROOF of this conclusion. Or is this just your URBAN leftwing commentary? The USA Is not “plagued” with gun violence. It’ has the lowest gun crime of it’s own history. And, CRIMINAL GUN VIOLENCE is just that. Criminal. The lawful use of firearms is overwhelming and if little boys want to play with toy guns, this has nothing to do with, or related to gun-crime when they are adults. Maybe you should do more research on fatherless homes, and the culture of possessions being more important. How about a study of how many individuals who have 4 door cars with 22″ wheels are involved in gun crime? What correlation is there? How about banning loud stereos? because dont those people end up committing violence at some point too, listening to music that promotes shooting at the police?

I’m not a fan of Nerf guns in Easter baskets myself. Not because I am anti-gun, but because I am pro-Jesus. Sell your guns in any other format, but an Easter basket? Winning The Future??!! It is cheap commercialism. That said, I will support their right to do it.

I’m not a fan of Nerf guns in Easter baskets myself. Not because I am anti-gun, but because I am pro-Jesus. Sell your guns in any other format, but an Easter basket? Winning The Future??!! It is cheap commercialism. That said, I will support their right to do it.

As a convert to the Catholic faith, I tend to have high expectations of our clergy, especially the hierarchy. It’s beyond me how and why this man has not been removed from the priesthood. Perhaps my standards are greater than the Vatican’s.

TruLevinian on March 15, 2012 at 12:03 PM

We are all sinners, and this priest, because of the thoughts in his mind, is probably one of the greater ones.